Pac-12 TV Network: Additional details from commissioner Larry Scott

Talked to Scott earlier today as he was making his way back to the Bay Area from New York City. I tried to cover as much ground as possible in an attempt to fill in some blanks — at least those that can be filled.

As Scott reminded me: The conference was, until Wednesday, negotiating with several potential partners on a handful of different business models.

Now that the major partners are lined up (Time Warner, Cox, Comcast and Bright House) … and now that the structure is set (one national network, six regional networks) … the rest of the pieces will slowly fall into place.

“There is a long to-do list,” Scott said. “I woke up this morning and my head was spinning.”

*** NETWORK MANAGEMENT

Scott said his first order of business is hiring a management team, specifically a chief executive of Pac-12 Media Enterprises (M.E.) — the newly-created business arm that includes the TV and digital networks and Pac-12 Properties.

The M.E. chief will have an extensive background in both media and marketing.

I asked if deputy commish Kevin Weiberg would be a candidate, and Scott laughed: “He’s too valuable running the conference day-to-day.”

Scott, Weiberg and the head of M.E. will form a three-person executive team. “We’ll be the overall leadership,” Scott said.

The yet-to-be-hired head of the Pac-12 TV Network will report to the M.E. chief.

Scott said he doesn’t plan on having separate management teams for each regional network — it will all be integrated, with specific officials responsible for the production and programming for specifics regions.

*** BUSINESS MODEL

Scott wouldn’t talk dollars but said the network is guaranteed to be profitable in the first year (I assume because of because of rights fees paid by the four cable partners).

“How profitable depends on future distribution and advertising,” he said.

What this means:

1. The conference won’t need to dip into its expanded coffers (thank you, Fox and ESPN!) to launch the networks.

2. The individual campuses won’t be on the hook to cover start-up expenses (equipment and perhaps the construction of studios).

(The production costs for seven networks and 850 events are going to be massive).

*** DISTRIBUTION and PROGRAMMING

I told Scott exactly what fans have told me on Hotline and Twitter — that those with Dish or DirecTV … or with cable companies outside of the four partners … are concerned that the conference won’t have carriage agreements with their local carrier in place by Sept. 1, 2012.

“It’s unprecedented for a network to have so much distribution lined up one year before it launches,” he said. “The fact that we are in more than 40 million homes — we’re way out in front.”

Because the Pac-12 Network has retained the rights to so many football and men’s basketball games, Scott said, he expects to get “significant additional distribution.

“How long it takes to do the deals, it’s impossible to say because they are negotiations. But we are committed to getting the broadest possible distribution.”

Scott also said the networks will definitely be on the basic tier within the league’s six-state footprint and will most likely be on a sports tier outside the footprint (although that’s ultimately up to the cable and satellite companies).

He also said that it’s “an open question” as to whether the carriers will offer other regional networks within a home region — such as Pac-12 TV-Oregon being available in Seattle.

“That’s up to the cable and satellite companies,” he said.

(If that happens, I’d imagine the outside regional networks would be on a sports tier.)

*** Last point, just to clarify the programming situation:

Regardless of which regional network you receive, everyonewill have the same core 350 events:

All football games (that aren’t on Fox or ESPN).
All men’s basketball games (that aren’t on Fox or ESPN).
40 women’s basketball games.
Best-of-the-best Olympic sports.All spring football games.

Once you get to event No. 351, everything gets separated by region.

*** As a reader service: If you have more questions about the network(s), please post them on the comment board below and I’ll try to get answers next week. But again, some questions have no answers at this point.

Jon Wilner

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“When CU paid $6,750,000.00 to leave the Big XII, CU was promised by Larry Scott that it would be in the same Division as the two Schools in LA County for recruiting and exposure reasons.”

When CU accepted the invite, it was to head off Baylor so they could get in the Pac-16 East with Texas/Oklahoma.

That the deal fell through at the 11th hour turned out fortunate for CU, but to suggest that they only accepted the invite because they knew they were to be grouped with UCLA/USC is ludicrous.

The NW schools lost a lot of access to So Cal in the P12 and sucked it up. Are you suggesting that new member CU is not a team player and wouldn’t be willing to do the same as long time P8/P10 schools? Arizona/ASU would have a much better gripe than CU.

Ruling out a 16 team conference because the 16 team WAC was a failure would be like not trying a P12N because the MWC network was a failure.

alchemist

Os Beaver:

What you would be okay with carries about as much weight as the fans on those message board threads you linked to, i.e.: none at all. If you insist on trolling, could you at least come up with some original material? Stale trolls are the worst kind.

milo:

Os Beaver is a troll so treat his/her posts accordingly. As for realignment, it’s an interesting topic for the off-season when nothing else is going on.

arningad:

What TomThumb said.

When CU accepted their invitation there was a ton of speculation that 5 of 6 Big 12 South teams would be going with them. If Colorado really accepted the Pac 10’s offer just so they could be placed in the South Division with the LA schools then they wouldn’t have accepted until after Texas had declined.

alchemist

ccrider:

I have never understood the legislative session argument. I get that if School “A” does something that adversely affects School “B” that legislators aligned with School “B” will try to retaliate by cutting state funds for School “A”, but I don’t see why the legislature needs to be in session for the arm-twisting to occur. I know if they’re not in session they can’t actually cut the funding but if, for example, some powerful Baylor-aligned legislator gets wind A&M has an SEC invitation and is preparing to accept and kill the Big 12 then that person can still place a call to College Station and say “I can’t get you this year but I can get you next year and every year thereafter.” The legislature not being in session would buy a school 12 months but it wouldn’t spare anyone the consequences.

OT

Reminder:

Boone Pickens does NOT want Okie State to be in the Pac-16.

He does want Okie State to stay with OU if possible.

Pickens knows that Okie State will always play 2nd fiddle to OU in the State of Oklahoma.

What would be a disaster for Okie State is for the SEC to expand to 14 by taking Texas A&M and Oklahoma only.

That move would force Okie State to beg the BIG EAST for admission, and Pickens knows that the BIG EAST would prefer Kansas and Missouri ahead of Okie State.

(In any case, Iowa State and Baylor will be screwed if the Big 12 were to disband. The BIG EAST does not want either one so both will have to apply to join Conference USA, MAC, or WAC. )

Calfan

Interesting discussion, but a bit of reality:
1. The B12 is profitable. They got a bundle for third tier rights. OU and TAMU are getting a good chunk. They know it, and wont walk away from it. It’s all a bluff to get Texas to cut back on their network plans.
2. The NCAA may not allow networks to show HS football games, or Texas may just agree not to show them. If that is so, they go all back to business.
No story here… yet, move along.

Bud

I hope they put good structures in place to set a high standard for the quality of production. One of the conference’s biggest issues in the past has been poor production quality (cameras, announcers, etc.) leading to bad representation of the product.

For some reason I’m confident that Mr. Scott will take care of this issue 🙂

Now that everyone is seeing what REAL leadership has done for the conference, can we move to get rid of Tom Hansen’s name on anything associated with the conference? The “Tom Hansen Trophy” needs to be renamed at a minimum.

Os Beaver

Actually the word is Texas is going forward with their plans to air high school games on the LHN. That is probably good because the PAC will then follow suit. That is an untapped market. You don’t need a ton if it but for Friday nights it would be a pretty big draw and will help the PAC bring in additional revenues to our networks.

alchemist

Os Beaver:

I don’t know that it’s really a big market to tap so much as it is retaliation. Texas is talking about not limiting themselves to showing high school games in the state of Texas; one of the LHN execs specifically mentioned going to Arizona and showing games from a Phoenix high school because the quarterback there is a Texas commit. If they take the gloves off like that and come into our space then I want us to be able to do the same to them.

We could even end up with an edge; we’re on around four or five million TVs in Texas with what we have lined up already and so far the LHN is on zero.

ccrider55

alchemist:

Agreed. I took that statement as a shot across both the NCAA’s and UT’s bow. We’ll have seven networks to air all the Texas 5stars, many to the whole nation.

Jon, please find out if the contracts specify HD broadcasts of Football and Basketball games, and HD channels to be available in the markets. I haven ‘t seen you ask this question, and I can remember ABC and FSN not broadcasting games in HD, and it was a serious impediment to the viewing experience. At times I’d watch SEC games on CBS/ESPN solely because they were in HD rather than the crappy FSN games of the week in SD.

This was another case of Hansen’s poor leadership in broadcast rights that I hope Scott has addressed. The Pac-12 broadcasts need to look as good or better than the SEC/Big-10, etc. or recruits, etc will take notice.

Please find out and post about the presence (or lack thereof) of HD broadcasts in the contracts. Football, Basketball and other sports.

harold

There doesn’t need to be — and undoubtedly isn’t — anything in the league’s TV contracts about HD, any more than it needs to be contracturally specified that games be shown in color. All TV content is moving toward HD; it just takes time and money.

By the way, the assertion that Pac-10 games have been telecast using substandard equipment is absurd. ESPN, Fox Sports, Versus and everybody else who does sports programming hire from the same universe of production companies and crews. The technology is identical across the board, until you start talking about a big-bucks telecast like a Super Bowl or BCS bowl game.

Announcers are a different matter. But the more Pac-10 games we start seeing on ESPN, the more people are going to realize it’s got its share of lemons, too.

alchemist

ccrider:

I hope so. Since we won’t go on the air for a year I’m hoping what Scott’s real endgame is is to try to panic the NCAA into enacting a blanket ban on high school broadcats now. It’s a zero risk proposition for him to make that statement when we are a year away from launch so I think that’s why he made it.

That, or he really wants to give Oregon a way to get footage of high school kids without paying $25,000 for it. (Sorry, sorry, had to do it. All in good fun, Ducks fans.)

alchemist

ccrider:

The A&M thing still doesn’t make sense to me.

If A&M can’t leave on their own then all this saber rattling is meaningless and Texas knows it so all they’re doing is making themselves look impotent in the eyes or their fan base.

If A&M can leave and will then why would ESPN really create a situation that could lead to that kind of instability in the Big 12? If you subscribe to the idea that not adjusting the value of the first-tier rights after CU and NU bolted, and that the giant LHN contract was a payoff to Texas to keep the league together then why turn around one year later and do something that could tear the Big 12 apart? Texas as well probably has the best possible set-up they could ask for right now in the Big 12 so they don’t want the conference to come apart either.

Something doesn’t add up.

ccrider55

Alchemist:

“If A&M can leave and will then why would ESPN really create a situation that could lead to that kind of instability in the Big 12? If you subscribe to the idea that not adjusting the value of the first-tier rights after CU and NU bolted, and that the giant LHN contract was a payoff to Texas to keep the league together then why….”

Perhaps because ESPN was not yet ready, nor did they yet have a very large stake in the PacXX?
It sure seems, even by longhorn standards, the height of arrogance…..or an intentional move with a win/win outcome either way it goes down.

alchemist

ccrider:

After I posted that I realized I had not been considering the shift in the landscape that did occur over the last 12 months (from ESPN’s perspective at least) when Comcast entered the fray. We got the broadcast contract we did because of Comcast. The Big East turned down ESPN’s extension offer to try to do what we did in the open market. The Big 12’s first tier rights are up in a couple years and the Big Ten’s entire package will be up right behind them, and the BTN gives them all kinds of leverage. I suppose it’s a possibility that ESPN would tip the Big 12 over just to send their valuable assets to places they already control in long-term TV deals to make it harder for Comcast to make headway with Versus.

Os Beaver

There simply are better options for teams with the LHN going as far as it has. A&M and MU to the SEC and OU and OSU to the PAC makes sense when they don’t want Texas having a recruiting advantage with ESPN trying to grow that business. That and realization that the league is just too fragile and undependable and they have to hear rumors of its end for as long as it lasts. Besides Texas I don’t see it in many other teams interest. Pretty much everyone has a landing spot in a stable BSC conference that is better run and can be counted on. The Big 12 Lite is just too much Texas run.

Here is another new expansion article furthering the same rumors of A&M + MU to SEC and OU + OSU to the PAC. It also has TT with heavy interest in a PAC invite. It mentions Baylor as possible to the PAC and I don’t think that would be the end of the world. Scott knows how to make the $$ work. Would rather have TCU or KU myself, but they are wisely trying to respect each conference’s needs, geographic positions and situations with 2 state schools. Thus KU and KSU in serious talks with the Big East which makes sense. The SEC eventually will add two good teams in the east like Virginia Tech and Florida St. It’s a good plan all around and respects the current balance of strength between the conferences which will stay very similar to what it is now.

And you wanna bet they already know what the ballpark cost for renegotiating the P12 primary rights if adding school x, schools x and y, and several larger perutations?

Deputy Duck

Get off your butt and DO something Wilner. It’s Larry this and Larry that—blah blah blah. What are you: his brother in law??

alchemist

ccrider:

I’m sure some bean-counter somewhere has gone through a couple scenarios. I think Larry even said something about provisions for realignment. I for one would love to see A&M and Mizzou make the move, if for no other reason that seeing everyone panic makes me laugh.

alchemist

Os Beaver:

Why why why why why?

There is one very *VERY* key element missing from all those stories: sources. Well, credible ones, at least. If there was anything to any of that then you would be hearing about it on some place other than some guy’s blog. “Anonymous person on the internet who claims to know someone who claims to know someone,” is nothing anyone should take seriously.

And the fact one A&M fan seems to have realized how good a deal they turned down last summer is equally meaningless. I suppose one is a place to start but seriously, man, it means nothing. If you looked around enough you could probably find a Nebraska fan who would still like to be in the Big 12. Anecdotes are meaningless and the plural of anecdotes is not data.

chris

Jon, so with the fact that the RSNs are losing the Pac 12 entirely, does this hurt chances of being on TV this year? For example, what incentive does Root Sports have in broadcasting WSU or Oregon State in a meaningless game when there will no longer be a continuing relationship?

What is going to fill the void of college sports on west coast RSNs? I am sure we’ll see a good slate of games from other conferences instead, but this has gotta hurt the west coast RSNs the most from a content perspective.

alchemist

Os Beaver:

I looked into that A&M/Missouri rumor a bit more and noticed it is only being reported by the same website who two weeks ago reported the A&M-and-Clemson-to-SEC rumor that was quickly shot down as being wholly made-up.

Os Beaver

alchemist,

ccrider55’s link by the TAMU Scout writer who he says is respected was full of interesting info. More than just small hearsay. That was one of the better articles I have ever seen on the matter and well written too. The one I posted was step and lock in tune with it as far as the conversations occuring and moves that may be made. I think there is truth to the premise. Who knows when anything will happen but apparently there is a Big 12 meeting scheduled next week. If ESPN and Texas move forward with HS games on LHN as expected the Scout writer says MU is ready to move now and A&M sooner rather than later. Says a 2013 start would be possible. Arkansas wanting the same pair as a package gives this new weight. I don’t see ESPN or Texas hitting the brakes so this could be coming to a head. I want the PAC to have HS games on their networks too so we will just have to wait and see what happens. I’m sure Scott is ready to make sure we end up in a good position.

ccrider55

Absolutely no HS games should be able to be shown on a conference network, let alone a single school channel. I’m not sure fighting fire with fire is the high ground. Sees more like drinking from the same poisoned well.

The only possible exception I would not object to strongly to is state championship events (track, v-ball, wrestling, etc) are not picked up by comercial networks, and are contracted for a year in advance. They are state events that participants are not selected but qualify for. Don’t thing even these should be on a single school’s channel.

alchemist

Os Beaver:

No, the Scout writer isn’t reputable. That is the same person who two weeks ago just completely made up a nearly identical story about Texas A&M and Clemson. Go to the Aggie Websider main page and click on the picture of Mike Slive standing at the podium with the headline “Winds of Change Blowing Again?” and note the authors. Same person. Same topic. Sure there is a non-zero chance that two weeks after fabricating a story about Clemson and A&M that the author has in fact come across some real news which no one else knows and coincidentally looks very similar to his last “report” but I sincerely doubt it. There is no other basis for that A&M/Mizzou story at all. When Chip Brown broke the Pac 16 plan, everyone picked it up, did so very quickly and was able to get enough confirmation to report it. No one who does real journalism for a living is talking about this. That should tell you something.

Duckhead

Jon,

That is great that Scott practically cover as much airwaves as he possibly can for the P12. There are still some small gaps to fill. Many of us who can’t seat in front of the TV while a game we want to watch is on, like people who travel, live overseas, work while a game is on, live outside of all those TV networks, have no cable TV but have internet, family-first husbands/wives, etc… Well the term small is relative. My questions are:
Is Scott also has digital network(s) in the work with either Apple, Google, and/or Netflix to deliver the games?
If there was/were such digital network(s) under consideration, what are the subscription plans being consider? A complete P12 package? multiple schools package (i.e. USA, UW, & UO)? Single school? Single sport? Multiple sports (i.e. Football, basketball, and Sumo wrestling)? I am kidding about the Sumo thing : )

ccrider55

alchemist:

Not that the aggies kicking sand about the sand box demanding their freedom imediately, if not sooner, as expressed by aggie writers makes their position the ligit one. It’s that there seems to be a bit of flame under that smoke. Who else in the conference would benefit from a sudden and precepitous move such as the aggies posters aspire to? No one. And yet there have been articles in the more mainstream on the subject lately. Cant find it now but a MO article a couple weeks ago regarding LHN and ramifications. Barry Tramel has addressed it, in a far more subdued and wed to UT tone, several times. Interesting that he included this:

“I asked Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville what he had to say this year about the Big 12′s future, considering last summer he got his butt in a sling over expressing doubt about its long-term viability.

“I said a few things last year. And, of course, I believe that,” Tuberville said. “I wish we still had Nebraska and we still had Colorado. I think it was a very good conference. But it still is. We’ve got a chance to continue to build on what has been here for a long time. There’s a lot of good teams in this league.

“I don’t know what the future is, but I don’t think there’s any doubt we can sustain with 10 teams and we can make the best out of it and even become a stronger conference maybe than what it was.”

Then as he left the podium, Tuberville smiled and said, “That’s a political answer, right? I worked on that. Took me awhile.”

Several other places he has indicated that OU/OkSU are a package, and also that whether SEC would or wouldn’t take the cowboys is not relevant an OU has very little interest in them. There is a slow burn going on. Some aggies would like it to blow up, but I’d be surprised if we got strong whiffs from the other schools/sources until crunch time. Even then how do you distinguish posturing from pronouncement? (ask Chip Brown?)

alchemist

ccrider:

I’ve come around to the line of thinking that the Big 12 won’t last and that A&M will probably be the one to put it out of its misery but I don’t think it happens right now.

If there is an ADs meeting (the article never says there will be one for certain) and everyone complains about high school and conference games on the LHN and Texas refuses to budge then the other nine still have options. Just off the top of my head, they could change the Big 12’s rules and institute financial penalties for every high school game broadcast on a single-school network. Ditto, conference games. Or they could dream up other sanctions. All that should be tried and have failed before anyone in the Big 12 who is upset about the LHN thinks of going anywhere.

There is no harm in A&M trying that either. The Aggies might be a bunch of oddballs nursing the mother of all little brother complexes but the fact I don’t care for them personally doesn’t mean I don’t sympathize with their current plight. Even if they have an invitation in-hand if A&M votes to leave today or votes to leave in June, they won’t be in the SEC until 2013 so they have plenty of time to try to be a thorn in Texas’s side. If they fight it out for the next eleven months and try to make the Big 12 work like they say they want to but can’t then they’re justified in making a move and no one will blame them for it.

Jon, great coverage on this whole PAC 12 expansion and conference network. Any rumors floating about a Pac 12 Radio Network someday?

CalJeff

So, Jon….as a Cal fan living in Southern California with Time Warner….I’ll get to see ALL Cal men’s basketball and football on the “PAC-12 network Southern California” channel on my basic tier because those games are all on either Fox, ESPN, Pac-12 National, or PAC-12 SoCal? Is my understanding correct?

ALEX

Jon- Will the main national network be in the Bay Area or down in LA? Who will be in charge of putting it together, building the network infrastructure and hiring- the league itself or will say Time-Warner do that? Besides games from all the sports, what will be some of the other programming on the national network?

stanfordfan

Jon, if the Pac 12 expands to 16 teams, would network revenue increase or is the deal locked in regardless of the number of teams. I’m really asking if there is expansion will the existing teams have to take less money?